Combing apparatus having provision for combing short fibers without waste



KlYOSHl I RATUS April 1, 1969 3,435,486 HAVING P ISION FOR COMBING IBERS WITHOUT WASTE ed May 11, 1966 COMBING APPA SH FIE. l.

United States Patent US. Cl. 19215 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A combing apparatus in which feed and detaching rolls act as nippers nip a web of fibers. Between the rolls a knife and a presser plate efi'ect nipping so that a comb working with the detaching rolls and a combing cylinder under the presser plate comb out leading and trailing hooks of short fibers without removing these short fibers from the web as waste.

The present invention relates to a combing machine and more particularly relates to improved constructions which is adapted to adjust a push-plate in a combing machine.

It is a common practice in an ordinary combing machine to feed a web into a comber of the machine without imparting any resistance to the fibers in the web so that the web may be suitably delivered into a top comber as soon as possible, and thus the web may be loosened. Moreover, there is no resistance imparted to the fibers before the Web is taken out by a normal rotation of the detaching rollers and delivered into the top comber so that as many as short fibers are involved in the web t0 increase a short fiber content percentage. In order to decrease the short fiber content percentage, it has been neces sary to increase the waste percentage of the fiber.

It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a device for adjusting a push-plate for use in a combing machine, in which a web nipped and taken out by the detaching rollers and subjected to a combin action through a top comber is lightly pushed by the push-plate on a bottom nipper knife to increase the friction of the fibers with each other in the web and also to elongate trailing hooks of the fibers so that the short fibers may not be brought into the web, the waste percentage may be decreased and the long fiber content percentage in the waste fibers may also be decreased.

Another object of this invention is to provide a device to eliminate various defects in the process of combing action of the web through the combing machine.

Other objects of the invention will appear from the following description, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of the essential part of the combing machine, showing the movement of the device of this invention; and

FIGURE 2 illustrates the arrangement of the fibers in a web.

Referring to FIGURE 1, the invention is illustrated in the essential part of the combing machine, one end of a lever 2 is secured to a driven nipper shaft 1 of the combing machine, and another end of the lever 2 is connected to a rod 3 by a pin 4. The rod 3 is secured by a pin 7 to a lever 6 pivoted by a pin 5. An end of a connecting rod 9 is connected to the lever 6 by a pin 8 and another end of the connecting rod 9 is connected to a side nipper arm 12 by a pin 13, to which arm 12 is pivoted a bottom nipper knife 11 in such a way that the nipper knife 11 may make an arc-movement at a nipper pivot as its fulcrum. A top nipper knife 15 is mounted on an end of a side nipper 3,435,486 Patented Apr. 1, 1969 arm 14 in such a manner that the top nippper knife 15 may either opened or shut with a nipper pivot 10 as its fulcrum so as to make the same movement as the bottom nipper knife 11. A top comb 18 is provided upper between a pair of feeding rollers 16, 16 mounted on the bottom nipper knife 11 and a pair of detaching rollers 17, 17, said feeding rollers or feed rolls and detaching rollers being a little spaced apart with each other. A cylinder 20 secured to driven shaft 19, is arranged under the bottom nipper knife 11.

A push-plate 23 is freely and sl-idably introduced into a cavity 22 of a bracket 21 secured to each upper end of the bottom nipper knife 11. The push-plate 23 is pushed downwards a little by compression coil spring 24 engaged in the cavity 22 and the push-plate 23 is adapted to make upper and lower movements along the cavity 22.

In the foregoing explanation of the push-plate 23, there is shown installed a compression coil spring 24 in the cavity 22, but it should be noted that a light pushing power can be easily applied to the web by the weight of the push-plate 23 itself and that any construction of the pushplate 23 may be obtained, if a suitable pushing power can be applied to the fibers in the web W passing through the lower face of the push-plate 23 and the upper face of the bottom nipper knife 11.

According to the ordinary combing machines, both leading and trailing hooks of the web W are mixed with each other in the combing action as shown in FIGURE 2, and the leading hook b of the web nipped between the bottom nipper knife 11 and the top nipper knife 15 is combed by a cylinder to elongate, while a top end of the trailing hook a of the web firmly nipped between the detaching rollers 17, 17 is combed by a top comb 18 so as to be elongated. As shown in FIGURES 1 and 2, the web W nipped between the feeding rollers 16, 16 and the top comb 18 is under a free condition so that the trailing hook a of the Web W between a nipping line of the bottom nipper knife 11 and the top comb 18 is dropped down as a waste when it is combed by the cylinder 20, ever if the web W is long enough to be used as a product.

For the better understanding of the combing action, reference is given to FIGURE 2, the line A designates a nipping line of the feed rolls 16, 16 the lines B and B define a space Al formed by joint nipping lines each of the bottom nipper knife 11 and the top nipper knife 15, shows a length of web W combed by the cylinder 20 from the line C to the line E, while 1 represents the web W between the lines D and E, which web is then combed by the top comb 18 and taken out by the detaching rollers or rolls 17 and 17. In this case, the trailing hooks a and C are elongated by the top comb 18, while the trailing hook at is nipped by the bottom nipper knife 11 and top nipper knife 15 so that the trailing hood d of the Web is not dropped during the combing process of the cylinder 20. When the trailing hook d is delivered by the feed rolls 16 and 16, it is nipped again by the bottom nipper knife 11 and top nipper knife 15, resulting in no dropping of waste fiber. Accordingly, the web thus delivered through feed rolls 16, 16, top comb 18 and detaching rolls 17, 17 so as to produce the leading and trailing hooks of the fibers almost does not contain short fibers, but the web contams the long fibers only.

In accordance with the device of this invention, the web W nipped and delivered through the feeding rollers 16, 16 is further nipped by the bottom nipper knife 11 and top nipper knife 15 and combed by the cylinder 20, then the web W is taken out by the detaching rollers 17, 17 and is combed by the top comb 18, during which the web W is lightly pressed between the upper face of the bottom nipper knife 11 and the lower face of the push-plate 23 in order to increase the friction of the fibers with each other in the web W.

In consequence, the web W is taken out by the detaching rollers 17, 17 and a part of the web W not nipped by the feeding rollers 15, 16 is elongated through a normal rotation of the detaching rollers 17, 17 in which process the web W is so pressed by the push-plate 23 that the fibers in the web W are entangled with each other, and does not result in bringing any short fibers into the web W. While, the trailing hooks d in the web W are elongated to finish the combing action of the top comb 18 and the web W is further delivered so that the fibers to be nipped by the bottom nipper knife 11 and top nipper knife 15, during the next combing action by the cylinder 20 are increased and the dropping fibers are decreased to decrease the long fiber content percentage.

The invention has been described in detail with particular reference to preferred embodiments thereof, but it will be understood that variations and modifications can be effected within the spirit and scope of the invention as described thereinabove and as defined in the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. In a combing machine having feed rolls and an upper and lower nipper for nipping a web of fibers during combing thereof, combing cylinder means to comb said web during nipping of said fibers, detaching rolls delivering said web, other nipping means nipping said fibers in said web lightly continuously disposed to nip said fibers before said upper and lower nipper and in position spaced relative to said detaching rolls to nip shorter fibers than those nipped for combing thereof straight by said combing cylinder means and disposed to keep said shorter fibers in said web during combing of said web by said cylinder combing means, and comb means disposed to cooperate with said other nipping means for combing straight said shorter fibers, said other nipping means comprising the lower nipper and a push-plate on the upper surface of the lower nipper and bearing thereon, and said web of fibers passing between said push-plate and said surface.

2. In a combing machine according to claim 1, including means biasing said push-plate toward said surface.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,551,840 9/1925 Nasmith 19-231 3,184,799 5/1965 Gauvin 19225 FOREIGN PATENTS 868,865 3/1953 Germany.

DORSEY NEWTON, Primary Examiner. 

